Blog

Have you ever had a clear vision for a project but needed help laying it out? We hear you! That's where we can come in and pull everything together! We partnered up with a Los Angeles lifestyle brand to create mood boards for their business.

Whether it's your first time designing your logo and website or you're rebranding, one thing is for sure.. the process can feel really daunting! Color palettes, font selections, and design decisions.. I mean where do you even start?! We totally hear you. Which is why we decided to give you an inside look at our full branding and web design process start to finish and offer some tips to help you prep for future projects. If there's one thing we can promise, it's that the process is probably not as scary as you think! So let's get to it! Here's a look at how we complete branding and web design projects in 4-6 weeks.

Welcome Kit & Onboarding Process

It all starts with an email! 💌 Most of our potential client relationships start with an email after people have had some time to explore our website and look at our services. We're all about transparency at Bold & Pop, which is why we include a detailed look at our services including pricing, our process and samples of previous projects right on our website. We also offer our Get Poppin' Welcome Kit and FAQs page, both of which offer further info and address common questions. This allows potential clients to see if we offer the services they're looking for, within their budget and answer some questions they may have all on their own. While we absolutely love connecting with everyone in our community, we know that sometimes you're just window shopping and might not want to set up an initial call so having everything on our website allows us to streamline our new project process.

Following a service inquiry, we will set up a consultation intro call or meeting to chat! During the call we'll ask what you are looking for, give you some background on our expertise and the Squarespace platform, and answer any questions you may have. If you enjoy our call and think we may be a good fit, we'll follow-up our intro call with a customized proposal for your project based upon our conversation.

Starter Kit & Questionnaire

If you decide we're the right fit for your project (insert dance party here 💃🏼) we'll set a project start date and send over our project Starter Kit packet to take care of the project logistics and provide you with next steps.

Within your starter pack you will receive:

Project Agreement

Deposit invoice

Client questionnaire

Client homework

All of that fun stuff 😉 Our starter packs include a step by step guide to kick off the project and give you a detailed look at some of your client homework. Homework!? While we'll certainly do most of the heavy lifting, we'll need you to complete our project questionnaire and compile any current assets you have for your brand. Our questionnaire consists of about 10 questions asking feedback on your design aesthetic, purposes for your website, must-have pages, etc. Some key questions to help us get in your head and start dreaming up your design.

Don't worry if you don't have all of these! If you're just starting out it's quite possible you won't have any of these. The key is to get anything you do have together so you can share and stay on schedule for your project.

Inspiration Board

After we take care of the logistics portion of the project we can get onto the fun part... kicking off the design! Based upon our your responses to our project questionnaire and our consultation call, we will put together an inspiration board that will set the tone of the project. This includes a collection of photos that showcase the vibe, as well as choosing a color palette and font options. This step allows us to create a visual guide for our clients to make sure we are on the same page for bringing their vision to life. After we present the inspiration board, we will make any requested changes -- tweaking colors, or additional font options -- and then it's logo time!

Logo Design

Now that we've locked down the style of your project we will design 3 logo concepts for you to review. We try to present you with 3 different takes on your chosen style so that you have some diversity in your options. Once we have finished the design we will present them for you to choose which concept you like best. We then offer two more rounds of revisions to make sure it's just perfect!

A lot of people are intimidated by this stage because it seems like such a big decision, and it is! I mean what if you don't like the logo options or need more than 2 revisions? While in the scheme of things it sounds like a small amount of options and edits, you'd be surprised! At this point in the process, we've already talked about what you're looking for and nailed down your style so it's all about tying those elements together. Psst.. a little secret too, most of our clients actually only go through one round of revisions. This is definitely one of the biggest perks with working with designers who you connect with and really seem to understand your vision from the get-go. If there's one thing you should spend time doing it's finding a designer you really connect with!

Website Design

Now that you have a brand spanking new logo, can we get a heckkkk yesss?! 🎉 It's time to move onto the web design portion! Based on the assets and the info you provided in your questionnaire it's time to start piecing it together on your website. At Bold & Pop we specialize in Squarespace website design, which allows us to focus on nailing the design and functionality of your site with a quick turnaround. The back-end is also super user-friendly which our clients love because it's easy for them to make edits after launch (don't worry we train you!)

We begin our web design projects by designing the homepage first. Your homepage is your website's first impression so we start there! Once complete, we'll present the design to you to get your feedback on the layout and the style of the custom graphics (banner images, buttons, and components). We include 2 design revisions which gives you the opportunity to make big layout changes or revise the style of your graphics. Your choices on the homepage design will flow throughout the rest of the website, so we want to make sure you love the design. This portion is all about nailing the key design flow. What if you need to adjust the text or want to swap out photos more than 2 times? Don't worry, when we say 2 design revisions we're talking about the main layout. So if you want to move the photo options around a bit or the text a little more that's no problem.

Once you've signed off on the homepage design, we'll move onto the interior pages of the website. We'll design the remaining pages in one swoop and then will present the website in its entirety to you for feedback. From there you'll have two more sets of design revisions for the remaining pages to make sure everything looks and functions just how you need it to! Once everything is all set, we'll finalize the design!

Website Launch & Training

It's time for launch! At this point we'll optimize your website for search engine optimization (SEO), transfer your domain and link any connected accounts (email, social media, email newsletters, etc.) and then it's time to get your new baby live! After your site is live we'll set up a website training session to walk you through the ins and outs of your website and provide you with our Keep on Poppin' exit kit -- we're all about kits and organization over here! During your training, we'll walk through all of the key Squarespace features and all processes applicable to your website (ecommerce and blogging components). As I mentioned before, our clients loveee using Squarespace (just about as much as us) because once the design is finalized the back-end is super user-friendly. Of course we're always just an email or call away, but we do like to empower our clients so they don't feel chained to their web designers every time they need updates.

After training, we wrap our projects up by providing you an exit kit which includes:

Applicable logins for your website and services

Squarespace feature reference guide

Branding style guide

Hi-res logos and all applicable creative files

And that's it! While there's certainly a lot that goes into our projects, we have created a process where we walk you through each step so that it's not scary or overwhelming. The only emotion we want you to feel when it comes to your brand and website design is EXCITED!!! 🎉 Of course, each designer and firm's process will vary a bit, but this is how we like to get business done at Bold & Pop! Thinking about a branding or web design project in the future? We're offering a FREE content upgrade below with workbook and pre-project checklist that will help you get ready no matter which firm you decide to work with!

It’s Valentine’s Day so you better believe we’re talking about something we LOVE… Web design! The majority of people that come to us for web design typically want a completely new look compared to their current website or they don’t yet have a website and are building from scratch. But what happens when you like your current website and you just want to add a little more pizazz to give it an updated look? Welp, you are in luck my friends because we’re talking just that today!

First things first, you’ll want to do a quick audit of your current website. What do you absolutely love that you don’t want to change? Where do you want to make improvements? This will help you narrow your focus on where to spend your energy on updates.

Sometimes it’s helpful to have an extra set of eyes give you feedback. We often become so attached to our own projects that we miss something major that someone else will point out! So don’t be afraid to ask someone for their opinions and then evaluate them to see what fits best with your brand vision.

Updated Imagery

This is one of the fastest ways to give your website a little facelift. If you have new, updated photos of your products or ones that represent the service you provide, pop those babies in! During your audit you likely made note or a few images that were less than favorable so this is the perfect opportunity to update those with new ones you loveeee!

If you don’t have new images but you have a few that you don’t feel property represent your brand, it might be time to schedule a little photoshoot to update those pictures. The best part is you can then also use them on your social media and any other marketing materials that you’d also like to update to keep all your branding cohesive! Win, win!

Update Fonts

Similar to your imagery, updating your fonts will also give your website some more life! Squarespace has plenty of fonts to choose from (you don’t need to stick to your template’s default!) and it’s super easy to update them in the style editor. Another bonus is you can also add your own custom font! It’s a little more tricky and requires some coding but it will help keep your branding consistent through all your marketing!

However, we don’t recommend using more than 3 different fonts on your website though. More than 3 can be confusing and cause the website to look a bit chaotic. One way you can avoid this is just by adjusting the color or size of the different header fonts to help differentiate between them when necessary!

Focus on Highlighting Content

This is the whole reason people are coming to your website, right? Are your products, blog posts, services, etc. being highlighted in the most effective way? Think of the purpose of your brand and what you want people to do when they come to your website… Do you want them to purchase your products or services? Then you need to make sure it is clear on the homepage what you offer and how they can purchase. Think clear call-to-actions! Want them to read your blog posts? Try something similar by highlighting your latest posts. You may want to categorize your blog and products to make it more simple and clear for visitors to find exactly what they want.

Use creative graphics and imagery to really highlight these key components of your brand and voila! New life to your existing site!

Integrate Animations

A fun way to highlight your content that is gaining a lot of popularity right now? Integrating animations! These don’t have to be anything crazy but just a few little touches here and there will help make your audience’s visit a little more interactive and keep them on your website a little longer. Our favorite types of animations right now include:

Gifs

Gif Animations

Just making these few tweaks to your website can really help transform it into a more interactive and captivating experience for your visitors. Have you made any adjustments to your website recently? Let us know what you did and how it’s helped your brand in the comments!

Need a little help with sprucing up your website? We’re just an email away!